326 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



ing the different woods into blocks, by consider- 

 ing and fixing the best periods of rotation, and 

 by judicious allocation of the annual thinnings 

 and falls of timber and of coppice, the Scheme 

 of Management will strive to realise, as fully 

 as is practicable, the desire of the landowner, 

 and to obtain for him the largest returns which 

 the land can be made to yield in the shape of 

 a regular yield sustained year after year. Even 

 details have to be fully considered, as, for ex- 

 ample, providing edge-shelter or wind-mantles of 

 thickly-foliaged evergreen trees along all the sides 

 of woods exposed to the deteriorating influence 

 of heavy winds. In various other minor matters 

 there is also room for improvement. Thus, 

 timber is often sold standing, and the buyer 

 carries out the felling. Even if the latter employ 

 the woodmen on the estate to do this, as is often 

 the case, the work is not likely to be so carefully 

 performed, or the damage to underwood or young 

 growth minimised so effectively, as if the opera- 

 tion were conducted directly for the proprietor, 

 and by his own men working under the personal 

 supervision of the wood-reeve. This seems to be 

 an old method surviving from ages ago. Even 



